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Arrowroot Jelly
Soak the thin rind of a lemon and a table-spoonful of sifted sugar in a cupful of cold water. Let it remain four hours; then strain the liquid, and mix it with three table-spoonfuls or arrowroot, a table-spoonful of brandy, the juice of four lemons, and three drops of almond flavouring. Put it into a saucepan, and stir it until it is thick. Put it into a damp mould, or let it get cold; then serve it in glasses. Time to boil, five minutes. Probable cost, 8d., exclusive of the brandy. Sufficient for a half-pint mould.
A stiff, sharp lemon set made with arrowroot rather than gelatine. It comes together in minutes, but arrowroot behaves nothing like cornflour and the acid load here is unusually high.
- Do not boil it hard or longArrowroot thickens well below a full boil and then breaks down if held at a rolling boil, turning thin and slimy. Stir over medium heat only until it clears and thickens, which happens almost at once; the "time to boil, five minutes" in the original will cost you body in the finished jelly.
- Acid weakens the setThe juice of four lemons is a great deal of acid for three tablespoons of starch, and acid hydrolyses arrowroot as it cooks. If you want it to unmould cleanly, hold the lemon juice back and stir it in off the heat once the mixture has thickened.
- Quantities and yield"a cupful" is not a standardised measure in a book of this date, and may be nearer the imperial half-pint than the modern 8 fl oz cup; a half-pint mould holds about 10 fl oz, so this serves two as a light sweet. Note that the water plus the juice of four lemons is more liquid than a half-pint mould will take. Three tablespoons of arrowroot to this quantity of liquid gives a very firm, almost sliceable set.
- Almond flavouringVictorian "essence of almonds" was generally bitter-almond based, and its strength varied from maker to maker. Three drops of a modern extract is a reasonable equivalent; more will dominate the lemon.
- SugarOne tablespoon is all the sweetening in the dish, and against four lemons it reads as bracingly tart to modern palates. Two to three tablespoons is closer to what most people now expect from a lemon jelly.
- The lemon rind soakThe four-hour cold infusion of thin-pared rind is doing the aromatic work, since the zest oils would be driven off by boiling. Pare with a peeler and take no white pith, which turns the infusion bitter.
- MouldingRinsing the mould in cold water and leaving it wet, as directed, is what lets the jelly slip out. Arrowroot sets as it cools rather than needing hours of chilling, so an hour in the refrigerator is enough.
- Cost note"Probable cost, 8d." is pre-decimal British currency, eightpence, and is a period price reference rather than anything useful for shopping.
Arrowroot, the starch washed from the rhizomes of Maranta arundinacea, reached British kitchens in quantity from the West Indies, with St Vincent the best-known source through the nineteenth century, and it was prized less as a flavour than as a texture: bland, easily digested and quick to thicken. That reputation put it squarely in what Victorian cookery books called invalid or sickroom cookery, where jellies, gruels and blancmanges made with arrowroot were fed to convalescents, children and the elderly; the tablespoon of brandy here is a very typical touch, brandy being regarded as restorative as much as flavouring. The ingredient was routine enough that household guides of the period also warned repeatedly about adulteration, since cheaper potato and sago starches were commonly sold as arrowroot and behave differently in the pan.